In the LDS Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting held earlier this month, a statement made by President Uchtdorf of the First Presidency drew a lot of attention in my religious circles:

Unfortunately, we sometimes don’t seek revelation or answers…because we think we know the answers already. Brothers and sisters, as good as our previous experience may be, if we stop asking questions, stop thinking, stop pondering, we can thwart the revelations of the Spirit.

Remember, it was the questions young Joseph asked that opened the door for the restoration of all things. We can block the growth and knowledge our Heavenly Father intends for us. How often has the Holy Spirit tried to tell us something we needed to know but couldn’t get past the massive iron gate of what we thought we already knew?

Not only is this statement true, I believe this sentiment is like a refreshing oasis of sensibility and activism in the midst of the desert that is the lack of commentary on independent inspiration and thinking. In fact, we have sometimes heard council from the pulpit that might actually discourage someone from seeking further personal guidance on a matter, if the question has already been answered. Not that I think Elder Scott was necessarily encouraging people to cease seeking their own answers, but I think there is a prevailing tendency in the Church for members to be overly complacent with what they already “know”.

The whole Restoration that began with Joseph Smith would’ve never happened had he been content with what he already “knew”. The ban that prohibited blacks from receiving the Priesthood or entering the temple would’ve never been reversed in 1978 had all church leaders been satisfied with what some of them felt were unequivocally clear answers.

The “all is well in Zion” mentality that seemed to develop sometime in the 1970s has created an atmosphere that can be hostile to questioning types. I won’t name names, because my intent here is not to attack these individuals, but there has been council from the highest levels of leadership to refrain from asking certain questions (or to only ask the “correct” questions). This in turn has had a detrimental effect on independent Mormon thought. It is one of the reasons that outsiders sometimes view us as “cultish”. Also problematic are the generations of Latter-day Saints that seem to believe we have all the answers and that doctrines or teachings never change, or that our understanding of God or of the world never evolves or progresses.

Thank God, then, for men like Dieter Uchtdorf, who remind us that our whole faith tradition is based on questioning, and that the scriptures and history are replete with examples of people who only got answers and growth because they refused to be content with what was already known. Let me throw in another similar statement that President Uchtdorf made in November 2009:

My dear young friends, we are a question-asking people because we know that inquiry leads to truth. That is the way the Church got its start—from a young man who had questions. In fact, I’m not sure how one can discover truth without asking questions. In the scriptures you will rarely discover a revelation that didn’t come in response to a question. Whenever a question arose and Joseph Smith wasn’t sure of the answer, he approached the Lord, and the results are the wonderful revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants. Often the knowledge Joseph received extended far beyond the original question. That is because not only can the Lord answer the questions we ask but, even more importantly, He can give us answers to questions we should have asked. Let us listen to those answers.

The missionary effort of the Church is founded upon honest investigators asking heartfelt questions. Inquiry is the birthplace of testimony. Some might feel embarrassed or unworthy because they have searching questions regarding the gospel, but they needn’t feel that way. Asking questions isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s a precursor of growth.